MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 19 



who laboured to connect the ecclesiastical affairs of 

 that country with those of the patriarchate of Alex 

 andria. 



It was not until the epoch when the Portuguese, 

 attracted at once by their love of gold and their 

 zeal for making converts to the Romish faith, pene- 

 trated into Eastern Africa, that any degree of 

 knowledge was obtained respecting its political con- 

 dition, or its natural productions. The grand object 

 of their maritime as well as their missionary exer- 

 tions, was, as is well known, to reach the territory 

 of that celebrated and mysterious personage called 

 Prtster John, whom they believed to be the king of 

 the Christians and emperor of Ethiopia. Their 

 pious curiosity was at length rewarded by the dis- 

 covery, or the supposed discovery, that the dominion 

 of this second Melchizedek was no other than Abys- 

 sinia. The error indeed was afterwards detected, 

 but it had the effect of stimulating their apostolical 

 zeal, and obtaining from eye-witnesses a more en- 

 larged and accurate account of the country than had 

 then reached Europe. The travels of the Jesuits in 

 the sixteenth century, while labouring to propagate 

 their faith among the natives, are detailed in the 

 Collection compiled by Father Balthazzar Tellez, 

 whose curious volume may be regarded as the first 

 attempt to compose a general history of Ethiopia. 



One of these missionaries, Peter Paez, who set 

 out in 1589, is generally alleged to have visited the 

 sources of the Nile ; at least his description of them, 

 as quoted by Kircher, strongly resembles that after- 



